All posts tagged Saras

The London 2012 Olympic Games hangover begins after a whirlwind two weeks. As we return to reality with a bump, investors’ focus will inevitably turn from the track and field, back to markets.

To attract their attention, the City’s number crunchers have been busy scribbling their thoughts on some of Europe’s leading companies. Here’s our pick of today’s broker notes.

Hotel and restaurant operator Whitbread has been cut to hold from buy by Deutsche Bank, ahead of the company’s half-year update on Sept. 6 and after a solid share price performance.The company’s shares have risen by nearly 35% year-to-date to 2123p.

DB’s analysts said:

“After such a strong performance, we can see a period of consolidation for the shares, absent of any corporate activity or material forecast upgrades.”

They added, however, that Whitbread’s long-term value story remains, in line with DB’s five-year growth milestones for the company, to be achieved in 2016. There is now 9% upside to the new target price of 2350p, which has been raised from 2200p.

In a similar vein, Centrica has been cut to neutral from outperform by Credit Suisse. The U.K. energy giant’s shares have swelled in value by a little more than 11% to 322p over the period. The stock is not expensive, said the brokerage, but from here on Credit Suisse sees a lack of upside catalysts.

An oil tanker is seen off the port of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, on July 2, 2012.

The six-month run-up to the implementation of a full European Union embargo on Iranian crude left many market watchers complacent about the impact sanctions would have on consumers in Europe.

By the time July 1 rolled around, most European refiners had already replaced Iranian oil with crude from other countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq and oil prices were hovering near their lowest level since May.

And yet a significant dent to one Italian refiner’s profits in the second quarter suggests that although European refiners have kept the oil flowing, the cost of sanctions could still prove problematic.

“This movement of the market has been partially offset by the temporary disoptimizations on the availability of heavy crude oils, ahead of the oil embargo in Iran,” Chairman Gian Marco Moratti said in a statement by way of explanation.